****^1/2 Godzilla vs. Mothra and Mechagodzilla with a Special Guest Appearance by Kamoebas!

Continuing the plot from the previous move, Godzilla once again must face his mechanical double. This time though, they throw Mothra into the mix. Not having to come up with any new ideas for this one, they instead just stuck with what they do best: mindless monster movie fun!

Despite being over a year latter, the guys at the "Kiryu" unit are still working on repairing their Mechagodzilla from its battle with Godzilla. Seeing how Kiryu is made from the bones and DNA of the original Godzilla (from 1954), it contains it’s "essence". Mothra, the big insect that made a path of destruction through Tokyo back in ’61, isn’t happy about this. Thereby the twin fairies that follow her around warn a familiar face (the same character and actor playing the main character from the original Mothra movie) about how Mothra would declare war on humanity of the bones of Godzilla are not returned to the sea. After much political deliberation, they agree to do it, but only after stopping Godzilla. Godzilla himself arrives in Tokyo a little earlier than they had hoped, because Kiryu isn’t entirely fixed yet. A particular kid, grandson of previously mentioned returning character, signaled Mothra for help by making the famous sign using school desks. She comes on in to fight Godzilla, and happens to have an egg hatching at the same time containing twin Mothra Larva. Pretty soon Godzilla is facing up against Kiryu, the rest of the military, Mothra, and both larvae at the same time. A bit more than he can handle, even though he did wipe out Mothra, so eventually he gets wrapped in a cocoon. Kiryu gets a mind of it’s own again, so grabs onto Godzilla and flies off towards the Japan trench to dive in and sink to the bottom.

Not exactly an original plot. If it weren’t for Kiryu/Mechagodzilla running around, I’d have called this an outright remake of "Godzilla vs. Mothra". Both monsters act almost identically to what they did in that movie. Still, the reintroduction of past characters and the continuation of events from the original Mothra movie made for a pretty good plot (as well as opening up a can of nostalgia). The part where Mothra and a number of people want to scrap the project also made for some dramatic tension. The rest of the plot had to do with the social strife of those working on the project, and the desperate moves to get things working in order to save the world and such. Overall a dominantly emotional human plot that doesn’t go too far into the drama and instead remains as light entertainment. Makes for a good glue to hold the movie together.

The big scenes of course have to do with the special effects and kaiju of the movie. Mothra first appears in the hauntingly beautiful environment above the clouds at night, flying along side jet fighters. Throughout the movie it is apparent that Mothra never looked better; it is a great mix between physical and computer effects. Godzilla and Mechagodzilla look the same as the previous movie, which isn’t bad at all, but they still haven’t figured out how to make Godzilla look good underwater. One well-made scene in the movie shows the carcass of Kamoebas washed up on shore, the victim of Godzilla’s attack. It’s kind of disappointing that we never get to see them fight, though. Still, if you want a good fight, this movie doesn’t disappoint. The title bout is a massive multi-layered brawl, each combatant fighting their all and allowing us to see a lot of entertaining stuff along the way. Plenty of landmarks get destroyed (again) in the process, and few moments seem overly short (the fight is pretty long, going from sundown to sunup). Overall they exceeded what they did in the last movie, which is great considering how good the fight was last time. They really did a terrific job this time around.

Overall this is a fairly unoriginal but still highly entertaining movie. In a way, you can consider this combined with the previous movie, "Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla", as if it were one long three-hour movie. Sure the human story doesn’t carry over to well, but the rest does. Overall this little "double-feature" is a fun little note on the history of Godzilla movies, and although we’ve seen this stuff dozens of times before, we can still enjoy it.

Basic human storylines that keep us interested

Well-done special effects overall

These movies always have good music

Thoroughly entertaining

Terrific final epic battle

There was room for a little more actual plot

Overall the story was very unoriginal, taking large chunks from previous movies

Special effects were generally great, but not always

Darn it, I wanted to see Godzilla fight Kamoebas!

Godzilla and Mothra a little to much like they were in "Godzilla vs. Mothra" (could have used some new ideas)

You know, I’m kind of surprised they didn’t make Mothra Larva triplets or something

Credits